Process for the manufacture of threads, films, or other forms of cellulose.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MAX FREMERY, OF OBERBRUOK, AND EMILE BRONNERT, OF MULHAUSEN- 'NIEDERMORSCHT/VEILER, GERMANY, AND JOHANN URBAN, OF ST. POL- TEN, AUSTRIA-HUN GARY.

PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF THREADS, FILMS, OR OTHER FORMS OF CELLULOSE.

Specification of Letters Patent;

Patented June 11, 1907.

Application filed May 8,1905. Serial No- 269,477. (Specimens) To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, MAX FREMERY and EMILE BRONNERT, both subjects of the German Emperor, and JOIIANN URBAN, a subject of. the Emperor of Austria, residing, respectively, at Oberbruck, Province of the Rhine, in the German Empire, i\lfilhausen- Niedermorschweiler, Alsace, in, the German Empire, and St. Polten, in the Austrian Empire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes for the Manufacture of Threads, Films, or other Forms of Cellulose, of which the following is a specification.

Artificial silk has been made by injecting solutions of cellulose, in suitable solventshair, by either of these methods, the product is always dull, brittle and without the flexibility of natural horse-hair.

The present invention consists in the application of the surprising discovery that when an ammoniacal cupriferous solution of cellu lose prepared at a low temperature, that is to say, at a temperature below 10 C., as described in Patent No. 617,009, is subjected througha suitable opening, such as a slit or a comparatively wide cylindrical orifice into a strong caustic alkali solution, that is to say, a solution having a specific gravity between 1.280 and 1.320; the film reduced in one case and the thick thread in the other are brilliant, strong and elastic, and are moreover, water-proof even when they have been washed with acid to remove the copper they customary heretofore, are excellently suited I as substitutes for horse-hair.

The following examples illustrate the invention.

Example I. 240 kilos of cellulose, previously treated successively with a cold concentrated solution of caustic soda and an oxidizing bleaching agent as described in U. S. Patent Specification No. (546351 are dissolved in, say 3000 liters of a cuprii'erous ammoniacal solution at a low temperature in the usual manner and the solution is injected through capillary tubes into a strong solution of caustic soda, preferably a cold solution containing not less than 20 per cent. The threads of coagulated cupriferous cellulose thus produced are wound up in the usual manner, washed with water until free from adhering caustic soda, and dried under tension.

Example II. A solution made by dissolving cellulose in a concentrated solution of cupric carbonate in a solution of ammonia of about 16-18 per cent strength in the cold as described in U. 8. Patent Specification No. 672350 is injected throughaslit-shaped opening into caustic soda solution preferably a cold solution containing not less than 20 per cent. The film of coagulated cupriferous cellulose thus produced is washed. laid between vaper sheets and together with these rolled mly on a cylinder or pressed, so that it may not suffer change of form, and dried. Under certain circumstances it may be desirable that the copper contained in these products should be hidden. Thus the color of the roduct may be varied by treatment of the atter with sulfuret-ed hydrogen, sulfurous acid, a solution of chromic acid or the like, in the known manner. This however is not essential to the invention.

Having thus described the nature of our said invention and in what manner the same solution of cellulose in cuprlferous ammom- I acal solution prepared at a tem erature below 10 (3., washing the coagulate cellulose thusobtained and drying it under tension.

2. A process [or the manufacture of'thick threads or films of cupriferous cellulose con sisting in injecting into a strong solution of caustic soda of about 1.3 specific gravity a solution of cellulose in a cupriferous ammoniacal solution prepared at a temperature below 10 (2., washing the coagulated cellulose thus obtained and drying it under tension.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MAX FREMERY. EMILE BRONNERT. JOHAN N URBAN;

Witnesses to the signature of Max Fremer y HENRY QUADFLIEG,

GERARD SELLERS.

Witnesses to the signature of Emile Bronnert:

ALBERT GRAETER, GEO. GIFFORD.

Witnesses to the signature of Johann Urban:

ALVEs'rO S. HOGUE, AUGUST FUGGER. 

